ORGS2-1338
Making Chitin Thermal-Processable: A Model Case of Chitin Nanowhisker-Based Vitrimeric Materials Enabled by Dynamic Boronic Ester Networks
Topic
GS2. Graduate Student Oral Session II: Functional Biomaterials and Cosmetic Polymer Engineering
When and Where
Sep 28, 2026
16:48 - 17:00
Room 102
Session Chairs
Chaenyung CHA
Ilkoo NOH
Jun Shik CHOI
Presenter(s)
Patakorn Pilasen (Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand)
Co-Author(s)
Abstract
Bio-renewable resources are recognized as green, sustainable, and eco-friendly materials. Chitin-chitosan (CT-CS), a copolymer consisting of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc) and D-glucosamine (GlcN) units, is the second most abundant natural polysaccharide after cellulose. However, its extensive inter- and intramolecular hydrogen-bonding network prevents melting before thermal degradation and limits its solubility, thereby hindering the fabrication of practical materials. The present work focuses on chitin nanowhiskers with partially deacetylated surfaces, namely chitin nanowhiskers surface-modified with chitosan (CTWK-CS), as a platform for preparing vitrimeric materials via thermal processing through dynamic boronic ester crosslinking. Functionalization of the amino groups on CTWK-CS with glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) via an amine-epoxide ring-opening reaction produces CTWK-CS-GMA containing pendant vinyl groups. The subsequent reaction of CTWK-CS-GMA with 2,2′-(1,4-phenylene)-bis[4-mercaptan-1,3,2-dioxaborolane] (BDB) forms a crosslinked material (CGB) through thiol-methacrylate linkages. Because BDB contains diborolane moieties capable of dynamic boronic ester exchange, thermal treatment imparts vitrimeric behavior to CGB through covalent adaptable networks (CANs), as evidenced by its thermal reprocessability through compression molding at 160 °C for 1 h. The reprocessed CGB maintains excellent recovery of its mechanical properties after multiple reprocessing cycles. This study demonstrates that introducing a dynamic boronic ester crosslinked network into CTWK-CS enables thermal processing and recyclability, thereby expanding the potential of CT-CS for practical material applications. The presentation discusses the synthetic transformation of CTWK-CS into CGB together with its dynamic crosslinking characteristics, thermal reprocessability, and material properties as a bio-based vitrimer.
